Drillers Fall To Arkansas

The Tulsa Drillers two-game winning streak came to an end Thursday night with a 3-2 loss to Arkansas in North Little Rock. The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the first-place Travelers.

One night after taking advantage of three errors from the Travs to post a victory, it was unearned run the Drillers allowed that proved to be the winner in Thursday's loss.

The Travelers jumped to an early 3-0 lead with single runs in each of the first three innings. In the bottom of the first, Maikol Gonzalez drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second with a stolen base and to third on a base hit by Alex Yarbrough. Gonzalez came home with the game's first run on an infield single by Brian Hernandez.

Tulsa starter Richard Castillo escaped further first-inning damage by getting a double play grounder from Mike Bianucci.

Arkansas doubled its lead with the unearned run in the second. With one out, Michael Snyder singled, and then advanced to third when first baseman Will Swanner missed a potential double play grounder off the bat of Adam Melker. The error put runners at the corners, and Snyder eventually scored on a two-out hit from Gonzalez.

Bianucci upped the Travs lead to 3-0 in the third with his 10th home run of the season. The blast came with one out and the bases empty.

Arkansas starting pitcher Tyler DeLoach kept the three-run lead intact with an excellent outing. DeLoach retired the first eight Tulsa hitters in the game before Swanner singled with one out in the top of the third inning.

It would be the Drillers only hit against the lefthander, but he eventually ran into trouble in the seventh when he walked Taylor Featherston to open the inning. With two outs, he issued another free pass to Jayson Langfels before hitting Brian Humphries with a pitch to load the bases.

The Travelers called on Michael Brady from the bullpen, and Jared Simon greeted him with a grounded single into centerfield that scored both Featherston and Langfels to cut the Arkansas lead to 3-2. Brady maintained the one-run lead when he retired Swanner on strikes to end the inning.

Castillo turned in a quality start for the Drillers, working six innings and allowing three runs, only two of which were earned.

Jairo Diaz made sure the lead held. The hard throwing right-hander worked the final two innings for the Travs, and recorded four of his six outs on strikeouts. He reached 100 m.p.h. on the stadium radar gun with several pitches as he recorded his sixth save of the year.

Tulsa's Nate Striz surrendered only one hit in two innings in relief of Castillo.

DeLoach, who was 10-4 for Class-A Inland Empire before his promotion to Double A, improved his record to a perfect 3-0 with the Travelers. He was charged with the two runs despite allowing only one hit in 6.2 innings.

The Drillers recorded only three hits in the loss.

Tulsa will conclude its four-game series in Little Rock on Friday night. Eddie Butler (5-8, 3.34 ERA) will work the finale for the Drillers, while Kramer Sneed (7-10, 4.88 ERA) will take the mound for the Travelers. Starting time at Dickey Stephens Park is slated for 7:10 p.m.